Lots of changes this Spring: Part 3 - Fence Bed

Ok. I'm working my way around the house and to each distinguished bed.  The Fence bed is simply along the neighbors fence that faces the back of my house.  I can see this bed form kitchen and living room windows.  Because I can see it all year, it makes me most anxious to plant.  Has to be perfect.  I know it doesn't really, but it would be nice if it was.  The branches on the fence is the neighbors Bradford Pear tree that split and landed on the fence.  A few months after that was cleared away the other 2 trees split as well.  I was ok with this since I think the smell of those trees is highly offensive.  I'd hold my breath whenever outside while they were in bloom. YUCK!
This bed faces West but us shielded by the house.  It's in full sun by 10am. Some parts of the season are earlier and some just a little later.  The summer sun lasts until a little after 7.  In the morning the sun creeps down the fence, so the tops of the plants get the rays longer than the roots or smaller plants.  This works great for Clematis!!

Just a reminder of where we ended the year 2013.  We made this bed just after moving in.

Fence Bed 2013

Fence Bed May 2014

Limelight Hydrangea

I was tempted all winter to move this Hydrangea. A friend of mine has a lime light and it's a miniature tree!  I was afraid this might get too big for the spot. Early Spring I pruned it way down,  hopping for a"bushier" shrub (I've seen some that are very leggy) and to control the height.  Buuuuut, now that more of the space has been defined, I'm encouraging this thing to grow.  Grow the the wind!! This would be one of my specimen plants for this bed.  Should be a great anchor.  So far it's almost as big as it was at the end of the season last year.  Yay!  Oh - and I do have birds nesting in the birdhouse!  This was Blake's housewarming gift to us (really it was just for ME!).  The birdhouse is made from pallet wood and has an apple painted on it to depict the name of our street.  I thought him quite clever! Love that bird house!
Infront of the Hydrangea are a bunch of starts I took from my old house.  I have no idea what they are.
The 3 grassy plants are the Liatris that I ordered as bulbs through the mail.

Virginia Creeper

Next to and kind of behind the Limelight Hydrangea is a new purchase as of a few weeks ago.  It's Virginia Creeper.  I damaged a lot of the branches when I was planting this.  I was tired and feeling aggressive and I took it out on this vine.  

I bought this because it should be able to cover the fence.  I just want it to grow along the top and a foot or two down.  I'm trying to hide most of the fence to create "Garden Walls." It's the neighbors fence, so I was careful not to buy Wisteria or a Trumpet Vine because those can be so very invasive and possibly destroy their fence.  So - the leafy creeper gets to come home with me.  It's supposed to turn auburn in the fall, and if it covers the fence like it should, I'm expecting to love it.

I'll try to train the vine to go straight up and prune off some of the greenery below so that the stems aren't' growing into the hydrangea.  To get it started in the upward direction, I took a screw and wrapped string around it, screwed it into the fence, then took the ends of the string and loosely tied stems to it.  I feel like I'm too controlling of the plants to be a bonafide gardener.  I just can't help it.

These are 3 Coneflowers I purchased this Spring.  I know these will fill in next year to give me a wave of color.  Looking at this photo I see a creeper stem on the ground - I will have that one nailed to fence by the end of the day!

Echinacea 'PowWow Wild berry'

Tiger Lily

I picked these up from a clients house over 3 years ago.  They were planted at the old house, I went back and got 2 of them.  These are my stunning Tiger Lilies. Click here to see flower pic.  The stalks get 3-4 feet high and produce a beautiful large orange flower with black polk-a-dots.  They do not spread because they are sterile. But I read there are seed pods that can be extracted and planted. I'd rather just acquire more.  But, they cannot be found in my local stores and most people (that i've run into) think their Ditch Lily is a Tiger Lily.  It's not.  They are different.  I don't want ditch Lilies.  So, this is another one I'll need to mail order next spring.  This is really a great plant.  They are tall and thin, taking up very little space but they are powerful when in bloom.  Who wouldn't want that?  I think I might order 5 next year.  Can't wait to see these puppies in bloom.

To add to my collection on lilies.  Here is another orange bloom.  Still spiky stalks but much much shorter.  These were bought and planted 2013. They multiplied for me this year.  Since I bought them already in bloom last year, I don't know when they will start to strut their stuff.  I'm watching those pods closely, and they look like it could be any day now.

Asiatic Lily 'Orange Matix'

Heuchera 'Blackberry Ice'

I have said before how much I love Heucheras (Coral Bells), and this one strengthens my affection. It is so sticking.  It looks a little lonely now, but as it's neighbors fill in I hope it will be nestled in nicely.  It is bold enough to stand on it's own and give a show while we wait a few more weeks for the other flowers to emerge.  I have another one farther down the patio and matched it with a different color variety than this one.  I've purchased some other Coral Bells whose colors fade once planted (too much sun or not enough - I don't know), but this one has been true to it's tag.  So happy with this purchase.

Well, half of these survived from last year.  They are very cute, but I honestly don't know what to do with the Thrift.  They are spring blooming and dainty, which should look nice next to taller, bushier things.  Going for size and texture pallet here.  I put them next to the flagstone so they would not get lost.  They may need to be shaved down for another bloom - I'll read up on it first.

The flagstone gives me foot placement to and from the bird feeder.  I learned my lesson last summer.  It also was supposed to help the seed from growing.  While they do give me a foothold, they do nothing to stop the seed from growing green.  That's all the "grass"you see in the background.  Is it impossible to put a bird feeder inside a garden?  Any solutions to this problem?

Armeria maritima 'Bloodstone' (Thrift)

Right infront of the Thrift is some Lemon Thyme.  I read that Thyme and anything Lemon scented was a mosquito repellant.  It may sound too good to be true, but here in the midwest ANYTHING helps!

Lemon Thyme and 'Bloodstone' Thrift

This Pink Champaign Clematis just finished out it's spring bloom.  It was gorgeous.  See it here. The bloom lasted about 2 weeks.  I bought this last spring and never saw a flower.  I pruned it back early Spring to just a 1 1/2 feet from the ground.  I was snap happy before I realized buds were already forming.  It was waaay earlier than I had thought they would I appear - it was still cold outside.  So I may have stunted the plant a bit.  A hard lesson I hope to only learn once.  When the flowers were in bloom, they were so showy that I did not notice the gaps in growth on the the trellis, now it's all I see.  It should bloom again in later summer.  This one is a part of Clematis pruning Group 2.  It should re-bloom late in the summer.  The Spring Blooms are on last years growth and the summer blooms are on current years growth.  I've cleaned this out since the photo.  It got so bunchy in one area that the underneath did not get enough air/sun and died.  I cut back the dead, trimmed the yellow and cut off the bloom stems.  I tired to air out the plant a little.  Fingers crossed that I did everything right.

 

Clematis 'Pink Champaign'



This is another capture from the old house.  This Hydrangea is at least 5 years old, and when I went back it was cut down to just a few stubby sticks.  My heart sank.  I loved flower.  It was my first Hydrangea.  My husband told me take it, so he dug it up and we planted it here, right in front of the Pink Champaign Clematis where I can see it from the window.  I'm so happy to see it sprout some leaves.  This is a much sunnier spot that where it was before.  Once I thought about it, I realized that although the clematis and hydrangea might look glorious together,  I think their bloom cycles are doomed to never meet.  Here are pics of this Endless Summer H. when it was in my old backyard, just to remind myself what I have to look forward to.

Spiderwort 'Blue N Gold'

My Spiderwort has made me smile and frown.  The blooms only last morning and mid afternoon then close up for the night.   They are vibrant and really draw your eye.  The plant is sooo unruly.  It's limbs stick out everywhere and, you can see from the photo, grows taller in back.  It looks like it's crawling all over itself.  All this is fine, brings personality and (yes, I'm saying it again) texture to the garden.  What makes me frown is the leaves where chartreuse   This year, they started that way but now has completely reverted back to normal green.  It's a specimen to behold with the bold flowers dangling off bright leaves.  Do I stick this somewhere else and buy a few more - or will they all revert?

Spiderwort 'Blue N Gold'

 I always said I had no interest in dealing with roses.  But here I am with 2 Double Knockout Rose bushes.  I couldn't resist anymore.  I'm depending on them to be the work horse in this garden.  They have promised to bloom late Spring to early Fall.  And that's all I really want anyway.  They are pink - you can see some petals on the mulch.  I read you don't have to prune, but if you do, you get better results.  They bloomed for 2 weeks then held their dead flowers.  I have a graduation party here in 2 weeks, so I pruned them down to the next nod and will beg them to be in bloom in 2 weeks.  After that, I might leave them alone and see how they do.

I thought it would be so pretty for the roses to mostly cover this iron piece and the blooms would poke through the sides.  Behind the roses are 2 yarrow plants and in front is Silvermound  - of which you can barley see because it's barely alive.  I'm proud of this color cast here - now they just need to perform!

May 30
Going down the fence line this is the 2nd trellis with Clematis.  This is Jackmanii superb. I bought 2 last Spring and had some blooms.  The photo shows bright purple - but this guy shows deep wine colored flowers and they are not nearly as big as what I always believed jackmanii's to be.  I considered retuning it to the nursery, but it has grown so vigorously, decided it was a shame to dig it up.  This is a part for pruning group 2, so it was also cut back to just a foot off the ground early Spring.  Since then I've cut it back several times from the top because it was getting so "hairy."  I hope the neighbor enjoys the blooms - because it looks like there will be a lot of them.  Hopefully they are bigger than last years.
It's great how this plant owns it's space.

Every garden plan I look at seems to include and love Asters.  I'm not a big fan.  Perhaps something went wrong last year, but I found them sloppy and produced very little blooms that were weak in color.  I thought about ripping them out, but decided to just move them to a less prominent spot and watch.  Should I shave them down in early summer so they are not leggy for their fall bloom?  Not sure what all the fuss is about these guys.

Aromatic Aster

Black Lace Elderberry

Here is another candidate for specimen plant that would anchor the other side of this Fence Bed.  This Black Lace Elderberry was chosen because of the Japanese Maple like leaves (and I can't afford any of those trees), and it's dark foliage.  Also, should get 6 foot high and wide.  This should stand out amount the other pinks and purples of the beds.
Next year we hope to put a sitting wall around the fire pit.  This fella will grow tall and will fill the space behind that wall.  It's been here for over a month and has not done much - but we are just getting started







I think I'm really going to love this one…finally.  Cindy gave me a clump of this ornamental grass a few years ago.  I planted it around the deck at the old house to hide the underparts.  It never received enough sun.  Cindy's grass was at least 7 foot tall, mine never got past my knees.  I was glad there was enough left for me to take to the new place.  It seems pretty happy here and I hope will look very nice next to and bit behind the elderberry.
Since I didn't buy this, I'm pretty sure this is Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’ Variegated Maiden Grass, but not positive.  I don't know yet if it has any plumes.
My husband loves ornamental grasses so I've tried to incorporate them into the planning.  So far I don't have much of a variety - I seem to be running out of space a lot quicker than I imagined I would ;(
I found this site of grasses that's nice to have when trying to figure out what will work.














This Lobelia 'Techno Heat' is the one of 3 annuals in this fence bed. The others are in a pot with Red Coleus and Spike Grass.  I've tried this plant for more than a few seasons and mine never looks as robust as they online or in magazines.  But, they are so pretty that I get sucked into buying them each year, thinking this time will be different.  Please grow lil Lobelia. Please

Lobelia 'Techno Heat'

One final shot of the Fence bed standing at the South side looking North. The iron piece at the bottom left is protecting a Climbing Hydrangea.  It's a mail order purchase and it's waaay too small to photograph.  I'm not expecting anything from this for 2 years.  I'm wondering if I just should have spent the extra $15 dollars and bought a more substantial shrub.  It's hard being frugal AND impatient!!!